The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver by Lois Lowry (1992)
Read: December 2009

I was recommended this book by one of my students. We had been talking in class about how we experience sense and the example of the Matrix came up about our senses being fooled. This student kept saying "Just like in The Giver" and assuming that I knew it. I assumed the book would be an adult novel, but actually it's a teenagers book and one that they teach at school, so I managed to get myself a copy and read it over the weekend.
The Giver follows Jonus and his life in the community with his parental unit. Everything is controlled and determined, for example you have to apply to become a parental unit and then your compatibility is tested before you are given a partner - you don't get to choose, as you might choose wrong. Everyone has their job, that again is determined by the council - they don't let you choose you job as you may choose wrong. The story starts as Jonus is about to be assigned his job.
Jonus is assigned that of a Receiver. In fact he is The Receiver, as there is only one in the whole community. Jonus isn't allowed to tell anyone about his job and he discovers that he is the receiver of memories - the collective memories of times gone by. These memories show feelings, colours and experiences that the community no longer have since everything was regulated.

The book was really good and I had to agree with the student who recommended it to me that it was similar to the ideas in The Matrix and our class discussion about how you experience senses, and how we could possibly know whether what we feel, what we see is true, or an illusion. It was a good book for this age group too - I can imagine it would be really engaging for them and there is lots for them to think about at this level.